Dog Food - Are you feeding your beloved furkids GARBAGE ?
I’ve seen many dog lovers giving their best to their pets.
But I have also seen a HUGE amount of pet owners feeding their loved ones commercial dog food. So very often when I go to the vet, or when I walk my dog, I meet other dog lovers too. They really really really love their dog. But why do they feed their dogs garbage ? I asked and they have no idea what’s in the dog food they buy. Out of 10 random people I ask at the vet / park / events, 9 would answer a commercial dog food brand. Meaning a brand you can get on any supermarket shelf.
Now, what is in these commercial dog food ?
In short. Garbage ! such as road kill, diseased and dying livestock, euthanized pets
See this link for video on how euthanized pets are used for dog food -
More specifically, youtube link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9DTzDfYMxo )
I would say almost all commercial dog food has BY PRODUCT on their ingredient list.
“When animals are slaughtered for food production, the lean muscle is cut off for human consumption. The remaining carcass (bones, organs, blood, beaks, etc.) is what goes into pet food, commonly known as "by-products," "meal," "by-product meal,"
By-product. / "by-product meal,"
(I will list the worst items but the list is endless, do a google on “by product”.
All that I have compiled below are taken from various websites)
- unwanted parts from animals that can be considered waste.
- road kill
- dead zoo animals
- dead on arrival poultry
- diseased and dying livestock
- euthanized pets from animal shelters (link that I had shared above if u haven’t check it out) - http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/11/30/are-you-poisoning-your-pet-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-pet-food-industry/
- rejected parts for consumption of humans
- includes blood meal – from slaughterhouse operations
- feet, beak, head, feathers, undeveloped eggs, poultry carcasses and can contain bones – from poultry processing
- poultry litter – swept from the floors of chicken coops
- leftovers" from the human food industry (restaurant grease, out-of-date supermarket meat, etc) and "4D" livestock animals (dead, dying, diseased, disabled) may also be found in pet food through a process called rendering. (Rendering is defined as "an industrial process of extraction by melting that converts waste animal tissue into usable materials". In other words, rendering involves placing livestock carcasses and possibly "leftovers" into huge vats, grinding it up and cooking it for several hours. Rendering separates fat, removes water, and kills bacteria, viruses, parasites and other infectious organisms.)
All rendered products are considered "unfit for human consumption." If we shouldn't eat it, either should our pets!
- includes, but is not limited to lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, blood, bone, fatty tissue and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents.
- giblets/(any other meat) not refrigerated immediately after slaughter but stored for up to 24 hours in a hot offal3 trailer cannot be sold for human consumption, hence they are used for pet food.
- dead-on-arrival animals or other condemned parts4 that have been declared inedible and unfit for human used for pet food.
More read on by-products
As if BY PRODUCTS aren’t bad enough, here are more bad ingredients to avoid.
Meat Meal “Meat meal” does not identify the source of the meat. Instead, they use vague and non-specific
- (for example, lamb meal): in this example, all lamb tissues, exclusive of blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents that are cooked (rendered). After cooking, the dried solids are added as "meal" to pet food.
- generic meat meals can also contain…
- Road kill
- Dead zoo animals
- Dead on arrival poultry
- Diseased and dying livestock
- Euthanized pets from animal shelters
(I‘m serious about this, check out this link for the video - http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/11/30/are-you-poisoning-your-pet-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-pet-food-industry/
More specifically, youtube link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9DTzDfYMxo )
Ingredients to avoid:-
- By Products
- Meat meals
- Corn syrup, propylene glycol, MSG (artificial flavors frequently used in pet food manufacturing to disguise inferior food quality)
- BHA, BHT, sodium nitrite, and nitrate. (preservatives that are carcinogen (substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer) used to limit the growth of bacteria or inhibit oxidation of food.
- Artificial colorings (no nutritional value and may cause allergic reactions.)
- Sweetener ,Cane molasses, corn syrup in any form, sugar, sorbitol, sucrose, fructose, glucose, ammoniated glycyrrhizin, propylene glycol
- General unspecific animal source (example meat meal, animal meal, meat and bone meal, poultry meal, blood meal)
- Corn gluten or soy(bean) meal as main ingredients. Note: Not all dogs tolerate soy products! Small amounts, especially of organic soy, are okay as long as a dog is not sensitive.
- Corn gluten - cheap waste products from the human food industry
- Dyes (Blue 2, Red 40, Yellow 5 and 6, other "numbered" dyes.)
- Suppliments like Menadione in any form (also listed as vitamin K3 or "vitamin K supplement"
See http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=menadione about this harmful version of synthetic vitamin K), Yeast Culture . long list of negative side effects
- Suppliments like sulfate and oxide based mineral supplements (e.g. zinc oxide, iron oxide)
Harmless but poorly absorbed and thus mostly useless:
- other long list to avoid, pls see - http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients
Whats the difference “Chicken” & “Chicken Meal”?
Firstly, Defination of “Chicken” by American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO)
(clean combination of flesh and skin with or WITHOUT accompanying bone, derived from parts of whole carcasses of chickens thereof, exclusive of feathers, heads, feet and entrails.)
Chicken - grinding it up, mixing everything together including muscle, skin and bones.
The water content averages around 70%, along with 18% protein and 5% fat.
Chicken meal - ground chicken and carefully dry it to a moisture level of 10%.
The water content averages around 10%, along with 65% protein and 12% fat.
Comparing in weight as ingredients is listed in % of weight first.
So, a product with “chicken” as its first ingredient may only have 20% of this ingredient in the final product providing 3.6% protein.
“Chicken meal” at 20% of the food provides 13% protein.
The maximum inclusion of chicken meal into the final product can be significantly greater than for chicken.
Ingredients to look for:-
- Species-specific animal sources include names like “beef, venison, lamb, chicken, etc”
- Not undefined / genericfats or proteins like “Meat meals” or “poultry fat” or “bone & meat meal”
Other ingredients for your info
A tick or exclamation mark will let you know if it’s good
Don’t be fooled by label, know your ingredients.
- premium," "super premium," "ultra premium" “All natural”
Here are 2 websites which is informative on dog food and their ingredients.
They would list the ingredients, explain the ingredient, and then analyse if it’s good, average or bad.
As I mentioned earlier, I was surprised about what people give their pets. Lets look at some popular commercial dog food.
1. Sample - Royal Canin Dry kibbles.
The ingredient list is so freaking long. I counted up to 50 and I stopped.
Because honestly, only the first few only counts to determine the majority ingredient as ingredient list are by weight.
So in order, the first ingredient listed comes in higher % than the 2nd and so forth. And with a list of 50 ingredients, I hardly think that anything below counts.
The biggest problem with ingredient lists is that they intentionally leave out a crucial piece of information. They fail to include the amount of each ingredient present. (Read about ingredient proportions here - http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-industry-exposed/dog-food-ingredient-proportions/)
Okay so lets just have a look at the first 10 ingredients
Ingredients: Brewers rice, brown rice, chicken by-product meal, chicken fat, wheat gluten, corn gluten meal, corn, natural flavors,powdered cellulose.
It looks more like a plant-based dry dog food using a moderate amount of chicken by-product meal as its main source of animal protein.
Basicly would you eat this ? Do you think it’s good for your pet ?
- Carbs, carbs, by product chicken parts (remember it contains parts like feet, beak, head, feathers, undeveloped eggs, poultry carcasses and), chicken fat (good actually), more carbs, carbs.
- Wheat gluten & corn gluten meals are basicly cheap waste products from the human food industry.
- Flavouring - (artificial flavors frequently used in pet food manufacturing to disguise inferior food quality)
- (a whole-meat source should be one of the first two ingredients, preferably two of the top three) -- watch for splitting, such as listing ground yellow corn and corn gluten meal as separate ingredients that together might add up to more than the first ingredient.
More understanding of this product, please see Reference http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/royal-canin-breed-specific-adult/
2. Sample – Pedigree Dog Food Dry
First 10 ingredients
Ground whole grain corn, poultry by-product meal(source of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate), corn gluten meal,animal fat (source of omega 6 fatty acids [preserved with BHA & citric acid]), meat and bone meal (source of calcium), soybean meal, ground whole grain wheat, chicken by-product meal, brewers rice, dried plain beet pulp,
- By-product meals too many ! no good protein source at all !
- So many unspecified protein source
- lower down in the ingredient list, colouring and flavourig, preservatives
- corn gluten meals are basicly cheap waste products from the human food industry.
- too much corn, wheat, rice ingredient in the top 10 which makes a high %
Also be careful if your ingredients list are majority of example :-
- organic brown rice,
- organic barley
- organic millet.
- Brewers rice,
- Corn meal
- Soybean meal
- Corn gluten meal
- Brown rice
- Oatmeal
- Dried beet pulp
These are good stuffs but it’s lot of carbohydrates in this food. Even organic carbohydrates shouldn't constitute 80 percent of your pet's diet – that's just too many carbs for a healthy dog or cat. Even if it’s organic.
More understanding of this product, please see Reference - http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/pedigree-dog-food-dry/
3. Sample - Royal Canin Dry kibbles.
First 10 ingredients
Beef, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, poultry by-product meal (natural source of glucosamine), animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of vitamin E), soybean meal, oat meal, whole grain wheat, animal digest,
- While it’s good beef is the top ingredient, majority of the other ingredients are bad, see below points
- corn gluten meals - cheap waste products from the human food industry.
- poultry by-product meal (unspecified protein & BY PRODUCT)
- animal fat (Since there’s no mention of a specific animal, this item could come from almost anywhere: restaurant grease, slaughterhouse waste, diseased cattle euthanized pets.)
- animal digest (chemically hydrolyzed mixture of animal by-products that is usually sprayed onto the surface of a dry kibble to improve its taste.)
- ingredients down the list (not listed here) contain colouring, flavoring, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity) – harmful, see http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=menadione
More understanding of this product, please see Reference - http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/purina-one-smartblend/
Lets have a look at one good product.
Sample - Acana Singles (Dry)
All ingredients since it’s not a long list :-
Ingredients: Lamb meal, deboned lamb, green lentils, red lentils, lamb liver, apples, lamb fat, green peas, yellow peas, canola oil, algae, garbanzo beans, pumpkin, carrots, lamb tripe, lamb kidney, freeze-dried lamb liver, kelp, chicory root, ginger root, peppermint leaf, lemon balm, mixed tocopherols (preservative), zinc proteinate, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product
- The first 2 ingredients are good, lamb meal and deboned lamb
- 3rd ingredient (Lentils are a quality source of carbohydrates & rich in natural fiber.)
- 4th – 8th ingredient are good too. (Peas are a quality source of carbohydrates & rich in natural fiber.)
- majority of ingredients are seen to be good and acceptable
Now that you understand the ingredients better, and if you want to choose the best best best for your pet.
It’s also good to read this :-
Actual Meat Content – A Weighty Problem (taken from http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/05/17/the-quality-of-pet-food-ingredients-part-2.aspx )
Pet food manufacturers realize consumers are becoming more interested in the ingredients in dog and cat formulas, and they know you want to see meat as the first ingredient on the label. They figure as long as when you flip the bag of food over you see chicken at the top of the ingredient list, you'll assume the formula is good for your pet. And most pet owners do indeed fall for this trick.
The raw meat, say chicken or beef, appearing at the top of the ingredient list is there because it was weighed before it was dehydrated. Meat in its natural form is about 70 percent water and weighty. That's how it stays at the top of a list of ingredients by weight.
However, once the meat is dehydrated, which all meat in dry pet food is, then it is actually the second, third, fourth and often fifth ingredients on the list that make up the bulk of the food.
Let's say you see chicken first on the label, followed by brown rice, corn and barley. The chicken heading the list could be less than 20 percent of what's actually in the finished formula.
A specific meat is what you want to see first on the label, but what you want to see second and third is also specific meat or specific meat meal. If the second and subsequent ingredients are grains, don't be snowed into thinking you're about to purchase a primarily meat-based food. It's a primarily grain-based food, so don't be fooled.
Example of a food proportion we will never see or know
Chart taken from below link
Conclusion
Many pet owners will find that it’s hard to purchase a good expensive dog food.
I suggest that you don’t have to purchase the best, but at least
- pick those without “BY PRODUCTS”and “ingredients to avoid" (See above list).
- make sure the top 3 ingredient consist of a good protein, better if it’s the first ingredient. Example Chicken Meal, Chicken (Chicken Meal is better than Chicken)
- pick a mentioned specified protein, avoid unspecified protein. Example “Chicken” and not “Poultry Meal”.
And if you feel that the nutrient is not enough for your pet from kibbles, you can also feed them foods like
- real meat (boiled skinless and boneless chicken breast,/turkey, fish without bones, beef, small amount of organs like liver)
*Your meat cooked should be without salt, avoid oil. Baking, steaming is good option
- egg (I read that raw is ok, if you are worried, you may boil it)
- coconut oil (improves skin, digestion etc https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/the-health-benefits-of-coconut-oil/ )
- plain yogurt, non flavoured (good for prebiotics)
- boiled/ baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin
- apples and pears (contain pectin which promotes healthy bowel movements)
- bean sprouts they contain enzymes that aid in digestion.
- pineapple, it contains bromelain which decomposes protein and increases the dogs ability to digest.
- mango (just the flesh, in small amounts) the fiber in mango is said to help digestion.
*Take note, keep portions fruits & vegerable portions small, because too much can cause an upset stomach and diarrhea.
More on home cook food for dogs
(although i'd recommend RAW feeding but that is an article i would write very much later on as i am only exploring on raw feed now, about 4 months)
Other foods they can eat (shared by a friend)
Becareful of food they CANNOT eat
*If your pets are having skin problems/allergy/sick/diarrhea/health issues, check if your current dog food ingredient are bad. If yes, try to switch to one which has better ingredient. So often, a simple change of dog food changes the health & condition of your dog. If you do some research, many dogs have died due to consuming bad commercial dog food.
My previous husky was likely to be affected by commercial dog food, it killed him with kidney failure. Failure of kidney, causes toxic level to built up, which lead to seizures. This was about 15 years ago when I didn't know better.
Some website reference I have taken from, but I also encourage you to read
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/downloads/booklet_better_products.pdf (pretty short easy read)
*If you are feeding a commercial dog food to your pet, kindly comment below which brand and why. (just for survey purpose if you don’t mind)
